The Economist Celebrates New Routes to Innovation at the 3rd Annual Innovation Awards and Summit in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Economist

--Awards for Social and Economic Innovation join the list of awards recognising individuals driving the most financially successful breakthroughs in Bioscience, Computing, Communications, Energy and the Environment

Wi-Fi and wireless LAN standardisation, the Prius hybrid automobile, Linux, microcredit for the poor, the first products resulting from gene cloning, and scanning tunnelling microscopy -- these are among the achievements that will be recognized today as The Economist hosts an event in San Francisco honouring the individuals and best practices that drive successful innovations that transform our global economy. The Economist's Third Annual Innovation Awards and Summit provides a rare opportunity to hear how the world's most inventive people are transforming our world and the way we create and turn revolutionary ideas into financially successful products and practices.

The evening ceremony, which follows the day-long Summit, will feature the presentation of a new award for Social and Economic Innovation. The awards ceremony will also celebrate the achievements of five individuals responsible for industry-altering breakthroughs in Bioscience, Communications, Computing, Energy and the Environment, as well as a special "No Boundaries" category, honouring innovation that transcends industries. Winners were nominated by Economist readers and journalists, and an internationally renowned panel of judges, chaired by Tom Standage, the editor of The Economist's Technology Quarterly.

"Tonight's awards recognise top innovators whose work has both driven progress in their particular fields and contributed more widely to global social and economic prosperity," said Standage. "The Economist is proud to recognise and thank them for their achievements."

Through the spring, a distinguished panel of 17 judges nominated up to five individuals for one or more awards, drawing on their specialised knowledge in the six award categories. Nominations were also solicited from key science and technology writers at The Economist and from The Economist readership. The nominations and eventual winners were evaluated against three key criteria: impact on an emerging branch of science and technology; effect on a marketplace or the creation of a new market; and the impact on revenue of the sponsoring organisation or the well-being of society in general.

The Economist recognises the following leaders for launching new markets and revolutionising the way business is done:

--Bioscience, Gene cloning and drug research: David Goeddel, Vice President of Research, Amgen, San Francisco. David Goeddel's work on gene cloning and the expression of human proteins directly led to the development of five important therapeutics. His many pioneering contributions in the field of hormones and cytokines include the cloning and expression of insulin, work which was initially published in 1978 and became the first drug produced by recombinant DNA technology. His work also led to innovations in human growth hormone, interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma and tissue plasminogen activator, producing an estimated annual revenue stream of $400 million for Goeddel's then-employer, Genentech. Goeddel was elected in 1994 to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

--Computing, Linux: Linus Torvalds, Fellow, Open Source Development Lab. Torvalds originated Linux in 1991 as a 21-year-old computer science student at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Dissatisfied with the MS-DOS (and early Windows) operating system standard prevalent on PCs, Torvalds made Linux freely available for downloading, releasing the source code so that people with knowledge of computer programming could modify Linux to suit their own needs. The software created a huge following, eventually attracting big industry players such as Oracle, IBM, Intel, Netscape and others. It also spawned several new software companies, including Red Hat, SUSE LINUX and Turbolinux. Today, there are hundreds of millions of copies of Linux running on servers, desktop computers, network equipment and in embedded devices worldwide. With the support of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), Torvalds now works exclusively on vendor-independent, neutral development of the Linux kernel.

--Energy and the Environment, Prius hybrid automobile: Takeshi Uchiyamada, Director, Toyota Motor Corporation. Acting under a Toyota directive to create the lowest emissions vehicle possible, Uchiyamada in 1994 became leader of a project dubbed G21, for Global 21st Century. Toyota gave Uchiyamada a free hand in the design of a new automobile, unbound by traditional restraints such as component sharing, marketing considerations and project hierarchy. Uchiyamada's team initially developed an automobile that employed both an internal combustion engine and electric motor, working alternately or together, engaged with a clutch. Later, some 80 research engineers (working to meet a deadline of the 1997 Kyoto Conference on global warming) reviewed multiple engine designs to develop what eventually would become a full-production vehicle. By 2002, Prius sales had topped 100,000 units worldwide.

--Communications, Development and Standardisation of Wireless LANs: Vic Hayes, Former Chair IEEE 802.11 Standards Working Group for Wireless LANs; Former Chair of the Wi-Fi Alliance Regulatory Committee. Considered the "father" of Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity networking), Vic Hayes chaired the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) committee to establish the WLAN standard, IEEE 802.11, which was set in 1996. The technology pushed down prices of wireless Web access, service and equipment, leading to what fast became ubiquitous wireless Internet connectivity at hotels, airports, cafes, businesses and homes. WLAN equipment suppliers will generate $3.2 billion in revenue in 2006, up from about $1.25 billion last year. Proponents see the technology getting ever faster, eventually handling streaming video and telephone calls. Hayes, who resides in the Netherlands, retired from his position as senior scientist at Agere Systems in 2003.

--"No Boundaries", Scanning Tunnelling Microscope: Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer, and Christoph Gerber, researchers at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland, developed in 1981 the "scanning tunnelling microscope," or STM. Unlike a true microscope that provides a direct image of an object, STM is based on the principle that the structure of a surface can be studied using a stylus that scans the surface at a fixed distance. Recording the vertical movement of the stylus makes it possible to study the structure of the surface atom by atom. The study of surfaces is an important part of physics, with particular applications in semiconductor physics, microelectronics and chemistry. STM also has been used in the study of DNA molecules. About 300 companies worldwide are developing instruments based on STM technology. In 1986 Binning and Rohrer shared half of the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the scanning tunnelling microscope. (Half of that award went to Ernst Ruska for designing the first electron microscope.) Gerber was instrumental in the building of the microscope.

--Social and Economic Innovation, Microcredit: Muhammed Yunus, a former economics professor from Bangladesh, is the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank. Yunus realized that poor women in small villages could work their way out of poverty if they had access to small amounts of credit. He began lending small sums of money, eventually creating Grameen Bank. The bank's mission is to lend money to the poorest of the poor in the countryside. Typical customers are women who borrow about $30 without signing legally binding documents acknowledging their debt. Although each is responsible for her own loan repayment, they join a group with other borrowers who provide peer-support and encouragement. This relationship is based upon relationship and trust; the result: a loan repayment rate of 98%. Grameen Bank currently operates 1,256 branches providing credit to more than 3.7 million poor people in more than 45,000 villages in Bangladesh. The microcredit model has been emulated in 50 countries around the world, including the United States, where in the 1980s then-governor Bill Clinton approached Yunus to apply the approach in Arkansas.

The day long celebration of innovation, sponsored by Scottish Development International, Strategos, Dow Corning and Burson-Marsteller and developed in cooperation with Mosaic Media Partners, opens with an Innovation Summit aimed at exploring how the process of innovation itself is changing. The convergence of sparkling guest speakers, this year's winners, and the writers of The Economist Technology Quarterly create a platform to share ideas, learn from others, and create new knowledge to further the potential of innovation.

Notes to Editor:

About Economist Conferences

Economist Conferences is a leading provider of highly interactive meetings -- including industry conferences, management events and government roundtables -- for senior executives seeking new insights into important strategic issues. Participants exchange views and compare experiences with other decision-makers and with specialist speakers from relevant fields. www.economistconferences.com

About Scottish Development International

Scottish Development International is a joint venture between the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise. Its vision is to fully integrate Scotland's international economic development activities. Under the umbrella of 'Smart Successful Scotland,' the new strategy to make Scotland a key economic player in the 21st century, comes 'The Global Connections' strategy, reflecting the radical changes needed for Scotland to prosper in the new age of the knowledge economy. For more information on Scottish Development International, please visit the web site at www.scottishdevelopmentinternational.com.

About Strategos

Strategos helps companies meet the competitive challenges of a nonlinear world by embedding strategy and innovation into the core of an organization. We work closely with our clients to renew core business concepts, illuminate competencies, challenge processes, and inspire people.

Founded in 1995, Strategos is the world's leading group of strategy consultants -- recognized for ground-breaking ideas about strategic innovation. We serve major client companies in diverse industries and in all parts of the world. We've successfully worked with over 100 organizations.

About Burson-Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller (www.bm.com), established in 1953, is a leading global public relations and communications counseling firm. It provides its clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, advertising and other communications services. The firm has 72 offices in 32 countries, linking more than 1,600 professionals in a seamless global network and unified culture. In 1979, the firm joined the Young & Rubicam family of companies, which in October 2000 was acquired by WPP Group plc, one of the world's leading communications services groups.

About Mosaic Media Partners

Mosaic Media Partners LLC (www.mosaicmediapartners.com) provides outsourced media services with a focus on content, marketing and sponsorship sales. The company, based in California and New York, works with media companies, associations and business marketers to develop content-rich event, print, and online media programs. It also provides media sales and marketing services. In addition to The Economist, clients include the Great Place to Work Institute, Wired, Federal Computer Week, Advanstar's Technology Group, Thomas Publishing, Thomson Financial, the Western Payments Alliance, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and RSA Security.